Sunday, July 17, 2011

Another Blog to Check

There was nothing big going on at Midway lately. Just the usual warm, sunny days. It's been a bit breezy, so a lot of the albatross chicks have fledged, but there are quite a few around. We've been doing are usual weekly checks of albatross plots, red-tailed tropicbird plots, and Laysan duck surveys. While I was over on Eastern Island, I found some pits that a female green sea turtle had dug. These didn't look like actual nests, but just pits to check out the sand. We've only had a few verified nests on Midway so we're always hoping to find more.

I forgot to mention that the coral reef researchers from UCSC (Univ. of California Santa Cruz) came out here while I was gone. Kristin and Anne have been coming out here every summer for a few years now. Kristin has been studying black-lipped pearl oysters. They aren't very comon around here, but she's finding a few. She also does a blog from here that you can check out for a slightly different Midway perspective. Here's the link and a link to their research, too:

About Me

After high school I went into the Navy doing nuclear power stuff on a submarine. After 6 years, I left the Navy then got my biology degree from Montana State Univ. I then worked for the USDA doing human nutrition research for 8 years. I also got my Master's Degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of North Dakota. While doing that I worked for Mr. Ellie Pooh selling elephant dung paper (google it) to help the Sri Lanka elephants. After that, I did the only logical thing with my MS and moved to Cleveland, OH and got a job in security at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It was great, for a while, but I found a 1 year temporary job at Midway Atoll with the US Fish & Wildlife Service. I loved it so much that I moved to an even smaller island with only 4-15 people (Tern Island). After being the Asst Manager, then the Manager, I got the chance to go back to Midway as the Wildlife Biologist for a few more years. Just so you know, I didn't write this as an employee, I just commented about my days here and put up some photos, so these aren't the views of the FWS. I still do ocean work for the FWS, but I do it from the Headquarters office in the Washington D.C. area.